How Do We Live a Life of Significance?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
When I was initially asked to prepare a few words for the dedication of the water well, I did not have the mental capacity to give it adequate consideration. Instead, I buried the request down a long list of to-dos I assumed I would eventually accomplish. In my mind, it was a non-event. Maybe, a few friends would gather around the water well with our family and pray over it. We would dedicate the well together. After all, this would be my last step to completing God's two-and-a-half-year conviction.
However, at the dedication of the water well in June 2016, calls from God collided. For more than thirty minutes, I sat and absorbed three sermonettes from missionaries in Africa. Men and women who had sold their possessions and traded their lives in the United States for following Jesus to Uganda. Like me, they were trying to be obedient to God's call.
God was using each missionary to build his secondary school in Uganda. One used engineering to develop building specifications. Another was charged with establishing a school with godly teachers, house parents, and a Biblical worldview curriculum. The last was least qualified by the world's standards. She lacked degrees or specialties, but she excelled in godly love and obedience, Katie Davis Majors. Katie was the founder of Amazima Ministries and the New York Times Best Selling Author of Kisses from Katie. A book God had used to shake my heart radically.
God tasked me with sponsoring and dedicating a water well. Instead of a gathering of our family and a few friends, the dedication of the well in June 2016 was a small gathering of primarily Ugandan construction workers and a handful of spiritual giants. Giants God had used to convert one verse of scripture into a presentation of the gospel. When the last missionary motioned for me to approach the podium, my stomach twisted, and my heart raced. I felt woefully inadequate in the presence of those being used so powerfully by God. What contribution of scripture or wisdom could I add to what had already been shared? With trepidation, I surrendered one more yes to our Lord. Yes, to share his story of this water well. Yes, to do whatever was required to be found faithful in obedience to Him.
Saying yes was the fruit of a prayer I had naively prayed on the side porch of my house one day in 2011. Lord, teach me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. It was a genuine petition to understand God's greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:36-37) A commandment I failed to comprehend. How could I love God more when I had nothing more to give? So many days, I struggled to feel loving towards my husband or not exasperated by my children. I showed up for work and sat in Bible Study but intuitively knew something was missing. I needed more of Him.
This seemingly simple passage spurred a prayer that prompted a quest. I wanted more than going through the motions, more than a mediocre faith. So, I sought His Word for love, heart, soul, mind, and strength. Was this a command to be personified or an elusive demand designed to demonstrate by perpetual insufficiencies?
What I found may surprise you. I found FREEDOM. I found freedom for my soul in learning God's Word, loving God's Word, and living God's Word. I learned love was not a feeling but a choice, a choice to obey Him. Three times in John 14, Jesus equated love for Him with obedience to His commands. I learned our money often reveals our hearts. We can use our minds to glorify God or hinder our obedience. And strengths are assets we can leverage to further God's Kingdom.
God used a consistent prayer to unravel the mystery of His greatest commandment. God desires us to use our hearts, souls, minds, and strength to say yes to Him. Say yes each time His Word or Spirit prompts. Yes, to use our money to invest in His Kingdom or our minds to implement His will. God taught and tested.
The big test came when the Holy Spirit impressed upon me that we were to sponsor the drilling of a water well in Africa, take our four small children with us to dedicate the well, and cast vision in our lives for Him.
God had taught me enough to know the answer was yes, Lord. I didn't know how, why, or when, but I knew to say yes.
Saying yes led to us dedicating a water well in Africa in June 2016. The world might call it a deed of significance. God called it obedience. God called it loved. God showed me loving Him will look like loving others.
Loving God and others is our great journey. It's a journey that will end in a Life of Significance. Not because we set out to live a Life of Significance but because the fruit of loving God will be a Life of Significance. Some have said, I must love the Ugandans because we sponsored a water well. The truth is I don't know the Ugandans. But I know God, and I want to love Him. God loves the Ugandans, so He used me to love them too. And just like we said in the previous article, a Life of Significance is when you add value to other people's lives, and then God backfills into your own life. God used our journey to the water well to backfill adventure, passion, purpose, and satisfaction into our souls. God uses our obedience to unlock the door to the abundant life. A life characterized by peace in our spirit and satisfaction in our souls.
Want more?? Start here…
1. Ask God to teach you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Let it be a consistent pray, a prayer you keep going back to throughout your life.
2. Dig into what God's Word says about love. You can start here.
a. How does God's Word define love? Read John 14 and 1 John 2: 2-3.
b. If you love God, should you always feel like or want to obey Him? Read Matthew 26: 38-45.
c. What emotions was Jesus experiencing in the passage above?
d. Do you think Jesus wanted to die on the cross, or was He willing to die on the cross?
